PS3 (9-11)- 8 Students demonstrate an understanding of forces and motion by…
8a predicting and/or graphing the path of an object in different reference planes and explain how and why (forces) it occurs.
8b using modeling, illustrating, graphing explain how distance and velocity change over time for a free falling object.
National Standards:
Context of Lesson:
When a student first walks into a physics classroom they come in bearing a host of preconceived notions. These preconceived notions include not only how things move but also about what they expect from the course itself. They have heard from their friends that 'physics is tough' and that 'the math is crazy hard' and so they come into the class with some degree of trepidation. With this in mind this lesson (which is the first day of lesson in the course) is designed to blow the preconceived notions about the class out of the water. This will be done by almost immediately getting the students out of their chairs and 'doing' the physics rather than writing it.
Opportunities to Learn:
Students will immediately grapple with how one describes motion through the warm up activity. Students will then work in pairs to try to calculate and calibrate an average walking speed. Students will work in pairs to calculate the length of the hallway. This will lead to a discussion of physics unique ability to 'predict' the future.
Depth of Knowledge
DOK 3 - Students will calculate their speed and use that value to measure the distance of a hallway using only a stopwatch
Prerequisite Knowledge
The students will only need a real world understanding of 'speed' and its relationship with distance and time.
Plans for Differentiating Instruction
Exceeds Proficiency: students will be challenged to determine sources of error in the activity and to design a modified activity that would eliminate those sources of error.
Approaching Proficiency: Will be able to watch and learn from their partner and from watching other groups operate. Instructor will ask struggling students leading questions (ex. 'What do you measure the speed of your car in?' 'How far does a 50 mph car travel in 2 hours?')
Accommodations and modifications
Environmental factors
Materials
-Wood block
-Role notecards
-Stop watches
-Taped out distance on floor
-HW handout and answer key
-'comment box'
Objectives:
Students will be able to differentiate between the terms used in physics to describe an object and the terms used in other disciplines to describe an object.
Students will be able to calculate speed using a measured distance and time
Students will be able to calculate distance using a calculated speed and time
Students will be able to use the concept of speed to solve a variety of different homework problems
Instruction:
Opening:
As soon as students walk in the door they will be greeted by instructor and handed a notecard that has one of the following printed on it: biologist, chemist, artist, environmentalist, businessman, carpenter, etc) Students will then be given 60 seconds to write down on a piece of paper every descriptive term they can think, of as their particular role, for a wood block placed on the demo table. Instructor will take those 60 seconds to take attendance and to write across the board the roles. Instructor will call time and then ask each role to come up and list their description words on the board. Instructor will then lead a discussion about descriptions and will then tell the students how a physicist would describe the object ('velocity relative to the room = 0, mass of .2 kg with a center of mass in its geometric center). Instructor will stress that physics is the study of motion. Instructor will recognize that this sounds abstract and boring but will remind students what the goal of science is: Predictive value. Physics should allow an indivdual to predict things. Science is unique in this regard no other discipline can make this same claim (English can tell you what are the classics but cannot predict what the next classic will be, History can help describe general trends in human history but cannot tell you what is going to happen tomorrow, Economics ... well economics doesn't know what happened yesterday, today or tomorrow they are kind of like meteorologists).
Engagement:
Instructor will explain that we are going to have a competition. A competition to see who can determine how long the main corridor of the school is with the highest degree of accuracy. Whichever group gets the most accurate value will recieve extra credit. The catch: the students will not be given a tape measure or a meter stick, instead they will only be given a stop watch. Students will be broken up into pairs by the instructor and then almost as an aside the instructor will mention that the marks on the floor are exactly 1 meter apart. Then the instructor will turn around and pretend to ignore the class for a few minutes. After the students stop looking to the teacher for guidance and start wrestling with the problem the instructor will begin to move around the room asking questions. When a group is ready they will step into the hall and explain to the teacher what they are going to do, go into the hall and do their calculation and then put their final answer in the comment box. When they are finished they be given a reflection sheet that asks the students to write down what the problem was that was presented to them, how they solved it, sources of error, and how they could eliminate that error.
When everyone has submitted their calculation instructor will then hand students a worksheet with word problems on it. Instructor will solve sample problems for speed, distance, and time. Students will practice solving these problems (Caution: this is where you will lose the more advanced students, ask those students to instead design new problems that ask to solve for one thing and then use that to solve for something else, like predicting the length of the hallway)
Closure:
Instructor will reinforce the idea that physics describes and studies motion with the sole goal of being able to predict future motion. Students will then be asked to predict how long it would take them to travel to a variety of different locations using a variety of different means for homework. (Advanced students will additionally be challenged to solve these problems using the speed of light 3 x 10^8 m/s)
Assessment:
Instructor will collect both the predictions and the reflection sheets. Instructor will notate if any students seem to be having difficulty and talk to them one on one the next day.
Lesson Plan
Lesson Title: Why do we study motion?
State Standards: GLEs/GSEs
PS3 (9-11)- 8Students demonstrate an understanding of forces and motion by…
National Standards:
Context of Lesson:
When a student first walks into a physics classroom they come in bearing a host of preconceived notions. These preconceived notions include not only how things move but also about what they expect from the course itself. They have heard from their friends that 'physics is tough' and that 'the math is crazy hard' and so they come into the class with some degree of trepidation. With this in mind this lesson (which is the first day of lesson in the course) is designed to blow the preconceived notions about the class out of the water. This will be done by almost immediately getting the students out of their chairs and 'doing' the physics rather than writing it.Opportunities to Learn:
Students will immediately grapple with how one describes motion through the warm up activity. Students will then work in pairs to try to calculate and calibrate an average walking speed. Students will work in pairs to calculate the length of the hallway. This will lead to a discussion of physics unique ability to 'predict' the future.Depth of Knowledge
DOK 3 - Students will calculate their speed and use that value to measure the distance of a hallway using only a stopwatch
Prerequisite Knowledge
The students will only need a real world understanding of 'speed' and its relationship with distance and time.Plans for Differentiating Instruction
Exceeds Proficiency: students will be challenged to determine sources of error in the activity and to design a modified activity that would eliminate those sources of error.Approaching Proficiency: Will be able to watch and learn from their partner and from watching other groups operate. Instructor will ask struggling students leading questions (ex. 'What do you measure the speed of your car in?' 'How far does a 50 mph car travel in 2 hours?')
Accommodations and modifications
Environmental factors
Materials
-Wood block-Role notecards
-Stop watches
-Taped out distance on floor
-HW handout and answer key
-'comment box'
Objectives:
Instruction:
Opening:
As soon as students walk in the door they will be greeted by instructor and handed a notecard that has one of the following printed on it: biologist, chemist, artist, environmentalist, businessman, carpenter, etc) Students will then be given 60 seconds to write down on a piece of paper every descriptive term they can think, of as their particular role, for a wood block placed on the demo table. Instructor will take those 60 seconds to take attendance and to write across the board the roles. Instructor will call time and then ask each role to come up and list their description words on the board. Instructor will then lead a discussion about descriptions and will then tell the students how a physicist would describe the object ('velocity relative to the room = 0, mass of .2 kg with a center of mass in its geometric center). Instructor will stress that physics is the study of motion. Instructor will recognize that this sounds abstract and boring but will remind students what the goal of science is: Predictive value. Physics should allow an indivdual to predict things. Science is unique in this regard no other discipline can make this same claim (English can tell you what are the classics but cannot predict what the next classic will be, History can help describe general trends in human history but cannot tell you what is going to happen tomorrow, Economics ... well economics doesn't know what happened yesterday, today or tomorrow they are kind of like meteorologists).Engagement:
Instructor will explain that we are going to have a competition. A competition to see who can determine how long the main corridor of the school is with the highest degree of accuracy. Whichever group gets the most accurate value will recieve extra credit. The catch: the students will not be given a tape measure or a meter stick, instead they will only be given a stop watch. Students will be broken up into pairs by the instructor and then almost as an aside the instructor will mention that the marks on the floor are exactly 1 meter apart. Then the instructor will turn around and pretend to ignore the class for a few minutes. After the students stop looking to the teacher for guidance and start wrestling with the problem the instructor will begin to move around the room asking questions. When a group is ready they will step into the hall and explain to the teacher what they are going to do, go into the hall and do their calculation and then put their final answer in the comment box. When they are finished they be given a reflection sheet that asks the students to write down what the problem was that was presented to them, how they solved it, sources of error, and how they could eliminate that error.When everyone has submitted their calculation instructor will then hand students a worksheet with word problems on it. Instructor will solve sample problems for speed, distance, and time. Students will practice solving these problems (Caution: this is where you will lose the more advanced students, ask those students to instead design new problems that ask to solve for one thing and then use that to solve for something else, like predicting the length of the hallway)
Closure:
Instructor will reinforce the idea that physics describes and studies motion with the sole goal of being able to predict future motion. Students will then be asked to predict how long it would take them to travel to a variety of different locations using a variety of different means for homework. (Advanced students will additionally be challenged to solve these problems using the speed of light 3 x 10^8 m/s)Assessment:
Instructor will collect both the predictions and the reflection sheets. Instructor will notate if any students seem to be having difficulty and talk to them one on one the next day.Reflections
(only done after lesson is enacted)Student Work Sample 1 – Approaching Proficiency:
Student Work Sample 2 – Proficient:
Student Work Sample 3 – Exceeds Proficiency: